Two volunteers litterpicking at Penylan

Event 151: A Clean-Up and BBQ at Penylan

On Sunday 20 August, the award-winning Cardiff Rivers Group  completed its 151st event.

The 35-strong group of volunteers, including 4 locals from Keep Roath Tidy, tackled the area around Penylan Library. The volunteers were supported by Derek Carson from Cardiff Council Parks department, who arranged disposal of all waste.

The volunteers rushed to finish the clean-up in record time so they could then relax and enjoy a free barbeque. They shared the bottom end of the ‘Rec’ with a dog show, but luckily, none of the burgers or sausages went missing, thanks to the keen eye of sauce-wielding Chef, the group’s social secretary Chris, who sacrificed his litter-picking duties to feed the starving volunteers.

Chris Hackett, BBQ chef

Many waste items were collected during the event, including a child’s bike, Heras fencing block and road bollard. Other interesting articles included a carving knife, hacksaw, an empty brandy bottle, and a George Thomas hospice collection box.  The group collected 38 bags of waste in total.

We were delighted to see a Kingfisher 3 times in Waterloo gardens, which is a really encouraging sign of good water quality. Unfortunately, the little rascal was too quick and managed to avoid having its picture taken by the sausage-fingered paparazzi that were in hot pursuit.

Group Secretary, Nigel Barry said,

“It was a great turnout and the volunteers made an instant improvement to the stream and the surrounding area of Penylan library. The highlight of the day wasn’t the tasty, free burgers, it was seeing a Kingfisher in stream near the centre of Cardiff.

We live in a wonderful capital city and it wouldn’t it be great, if everyone could appreciate what we have and help us to look after it? In the past 10 years, we’ve come a long way and seen many volunteering groups spring up and make a difference to Cardiff. They can all take a bow for helping to make the City what it is today, improving it for everyone including the wildlife.”

All in all, it was a good event, with a few new faces and a vast improvement made to the cleanliness with the removal of 38 bags of rubbish and a host of larger items. The group hope that the dog owners at the show picked up their waste and left the park in the same pristine condition that they left it in.

More photographs of the day can be seen on our Flickr pages.